DEFINING THE LANGUAGE SITUATION IN MODERN KAZAKHSTAN

Abstract

In the context of globalization and expanding international processes, there is a growing need to take a closer look at the language situation in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The main goal of the present paper is to characterize the language situation in modern Kazakhstan based on the analysis of specialized literature. The importance of this investigation is determined by the need to study the modern realities of communication and the functioning of the Kazakh, Russian and English languages in the context of the implementation of the “Trinity of Languages” project as an objective factor in the transformation of the language situation. The research is carried out within a sociolinguistic perspective and based on the methods of analysis and synthesis of theoretical materials and results of empirical studies on the language situation in modern Kazakhstan. The analysis showed that the language situation in Kazakhstan is exoglossic unbalanced four-component and comprises languages of four functional types: local languages, a regional language (Russian), a macro-intermediary language (Kazakh), and a professional language (English). While the Kazakh and Russian languages are dominant, English is becoming widespread, especially in the fields of economics and education. The theoretical value of this study is that it can contribute to the further development of sociolinguistics when considering the problems of the language situation and multilingualism. The practical significance of the work is that the results obtained can be used in theoretical courses in general linguistics, sociolinguistics, and psycholinguistics.